While luxury spas have offered Nordic experiences for years, casual cold plunge and sauna spots are relatively new to the Lower Mainland
Imagine entering a Vancouver alleyway — the kind you usually try to avoid.
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There is an overflowing dumpster, rain water and urban grit crunching underfoot.
You see a white tent, but this is not a coroner’s tent.
Inside is a fire pit, a barrel sauna and a row of plunge tubs, some with ice bobbing on the water’s surface.
This refuge tucked in an industrial corner of Vancouver is a community “cold plunge.”
While luxury spas have offered Nordic sauna and cold immersion experiences for years, casual cold plunge and sauna spots are relatively new to the Lower Mainland.
If the measure of a trend is the moment those who discovered it “before it was popular” and the rest of us meet, we are at the top of the curve.
Like pot shops, they came before regulations, and stayed, operating in a grey zone — not exactly legal or illegal, but not regulated.
That’s about to change.
In June, Vancouver Coun. Lisa Dominato introduced a motion to relax the municipality’s bylaws to allow, and regulate, outdoor cold plunge and sauna venues — and now the city is considering allowing more options, such as mobile saunas set up beach side, or a proposal to repurpose unused community swimming pools in colder weather.
We are not quite Finland, where saunas and avanto (“ice hole”) swimming is a national pastime, but it’s a start.
Dominato said the city is responding to a “generational shift” in the experiences people want, including an appetite among young people for health, wellness and personal growth. It also helps repurpose under-utilized industrial areas “in positive ways,” said Dominato.
A committee is looking at what kind of regulatory process is needed, while spaces already operating are allowed to continue.
By the end of 2025, we can expect more of these venues that aim to transform not just our barren alleyways and parking lots, but our own pain into something close to pleasure.
For Gatherwell’s founder, Jonathan Chawla, the benefits are more than therapeutic.
“The primary reason for Gatherwell was to create a space where people can come and reduce isolation, experience connection and discover a sense of belonging,” said Chawla.
When Chawla, who was born in Canada but raised in Thailand, moved to Vancouver several years ago, he experienced isolation and loneliness.
“There aren’t many places to go here in the cold months where you can talk to people without alcohol, have meaningful conversations and make deep connections,” said Chawla.
Vancouver, he says, doesn’t have enough “third spaces” — community places where people can gather in a friendly way, that aren’t home or work.
Inspired in part by the now closed secret saunas in Squamish, where a pair of barrel saunas were installed by enthusiasts on Crown land near the Mamquam River, Chawla envisioned a place that was outdoors, local, safe and accessible.
So he rented a parking lot and set up in a commercially zoned space in Mount Pleasant. The city and health department showed up. After inspecting, they let him stay open.
“The city has been really, really interested in helping us work this out,” said Chawla.
Sessions range from $25 to $37. While Gatherwell offers the space for group rentals, it’s an intimate place where people come to talk and experience something together, said Chawla.
“You can show up solo, without feeling intimidated,” he said.
Gatherwell has four plunge tubs of graduated temperatures, ranging from 1 C to 10 C, and provides lockers, bathrobes, sauna towels and tea. Participants wear bathing suits.
While the sauna is mostly quiet, save for the sound of steam sizzling off the hot stones, the plunge tubs rock with gasps of pain, accomplishment and laughter. Around the fire pit, over cups of tea, there is relief and relaxation.
La France discovered cold plunges during the pandemic lockdowns when he was struggling mentally. A friend invited him to dip outdoors in a North Vancouver river. The practice brought him challenge, joy, relief and connection. “I was instantly hooked,” he said.
“Taking a sliver of an alleyway and transforming it opens opportunities for beautiful shared experiences.” said La France.
